Catch up with highlights from our digital travels this week…

Tall buildings with a twist

No longer content with vying for the status of ‘the world’s tallest building’, cities are looking to reshape their skylines in an even more outlandish way… Curbed explores the trend for twisted towers, profiling the tallest ones across the world.

Deserted desert islands

We’ve featured ghost towns and cities before, but never an island. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t any…  Atlas Obscura has rounded up 15 island outposts that have been abandoned by their human inhabitants, from a platform in the English channel to a Japanese landmass sculpted by manufacturers Mitsubishi.

Get to know the roots of the New East’s skateboarding scene

During the Cold War skateboarding was considered a taboo ‘Western’ sport in the Eastern Bloc, and the closest thing to a half pipe was the side of a Modernist building. But where there’s a will, there’s a way. Calvert Journal lifts the lid on the era’s thriving subculture, which used architecture as its skate park.

An A-Z of city architecture

Scottish illustrator Jack Daly’s project Wanderlust Alphabet combines his twin passions – travel and illustration. He’s creating an alphabet of architecture inspired by cities he’s visited. So far he’s gone from Amsterdam to – well, Edinburgh. But he hopes to end up in Zagreb, or Zagazig, or maybe even Zacatecas… The series is a work-in-progress. Follow his travels over on Behance.

Live in a library in the sky

The owners of this São Paulo penthouse are serious about their books. So much so, they tasked Studio MK27 with creating floor-to-ceiling shelving units for their growing collection inside the apartment’s double-height living room. Though highly impractical – seriously, how are they going to dust the top shelves? – it’s beautifully done and the mid-century design pieces are the cherry on the cake. Dezeen has more.